GLOBAL BREAKOUT

International talent shines bright this year on the PGA TOUR

- JIM MCCABE

The PGA TOUR in 2025 proved it is loaded with a parade of international talents.

Through the third week of September, there had been 39 tournaments played, and the ingredients were there for what is a beautiful layer of flavor: 14 players from 11 different countries had won nearly half of them, 18 in all, or 46 percent. Impressive, yes, but consider further that the wins included a healthy sprinkling of the most marquee of tournaments.

What comes to mind is the quote attributed to the legendary Gary Player: “But golf being an international game and everybody loving the game the way they do, if you want to spread the game of golf, it’s good that you have competition.”

Start with Rory McIlroy’s banner year. To record victories at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters – Pebble Beach, TPC Sawgrass, Augusta National is quite the trifecta – was to witness a most remarkable year for the icon from Northern Ireland. It will go down in the record books that 2025 was the season when McIlroy secured the career Grand Slam, just the sixth player to do that. (He joins Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods.)